Board of Supervisors Unanimously Approves Preston’s Street Teams Transparency Legislation As Teams Release First-Ever Report

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved Supervisor Dean Preston’s ordinance to require more transparency from San Francisco’s Street Response Teams. The passage of the ordinance comes following a year of working closely with the teams to improve coordination and the release of public information, including Preston’s push for a comprehensive program audit of the teams and Preston’s partnership with the Department of Emergency Management, Department of Public Health, Fire Department, and Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing to present the first-ever annual report for the teams. The annual report includes key goals, data, and metrics to track successes and areas of improvement for teams like the Homeless Outreach Team, Healthy Streets Operation Center, Street Crisis Response Team, Post Overdose Engagement Team, and others.  

“Our street teams are doing incredible work to engage with some of our most vulnerable neighbors, de-escalating difficult situations, and getting people care, assistance, and resources,” stated Preston. “Increased coordination and transparency will help them show their impact to the public, improve outcomes, and make sure policymakers have the data to target resources on strategies that are working.”

The first annual report includes comprehensive information about how street teams are prioritizing individuals and sharing data with each other, including a preview of a new outreach worker tool that will ensure that teams can record and share information with each other in real time. The report also includes data showing that the city’s rapid response teams have responded to nearly 80% of calls from the public regarding non-crisis, non-emergency needs of people experiencing homelessness. Historically, those calls would have been routed to police, taking up crucial resources that could otherwise have been used to address violent crime, thefts, and other offenses. 

Notably, the annual report includes– for the first time– data about the types of shelter or housing accepted or rejected by unhoused individuals interacting with the street teams following a pilot launched by the Department of Emergency Management and Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing during the last fiscal year. The data from the pilot showed that people accepted non-congregate shelter at significantly higher rates than they accepted offers of congregate shelter.

Source: Annual Report, pg. 22 

“There is no need to make policy decisions in the dark, and our street teams are playing a crucial role in gathering important data straight from the source,” stated Preston. “There’s no question that non-congregate shelter and permanent supportive housing (PSH) are key approaches for solving homelessness, and I look forward to working with the street teams to ensure they have what they need to help people get off the street and into housing, treatment, or other programs that will improve the quality of life for all of our neighbors.”